Newsweek Piece Responds To Esquire Profile Of Abortion Provider Hern

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 19 Aug 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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According to Newsweek's Sarah Kliff, a recent profile published in Esquire asserting that William Hern is the only provider of abortions later in pregnancy in the U.S. following George Tiller's death is "not true." Abortion provider LeRoy Carhart "operates in the second and third trimester, worked at Tiller's clinic for more than a decade, and is trying to open a new late-term clinic in the Midwest," according to Kliff. She writes that "admittedly" there are a "very small number" of providers who perform abortions later in pregnancy but that a recent Guttmacher Institute survey found that 8% of abortion providers operate through the 24th week of pregnancy. Kliff says that Carhart knows of six physicians who perform abortions in the third trimester, and a representative from an abortion-rights advocacy group told her that there are a number of providers performing abortions during the third trimester.

"These inaccurate descriptions are, in a sense, not entirely surprising," Kliff writes about the Esquire piece, explaining that Hern "is a high-profile doctor who publicly describes himself as 'the only doctor in the world,' after Tiller's death, to do these abortions" and will "see patients whom Carhart currently would not." Kliff continues that "to say [Hern is] the last late-term provider or specialist is just not true," adding, "Accuracy always matters in journalism, and never more so than when writing about such a sensitive and controversial subject." Kliff concludes that abortion later in pregnancy is "indeed rare and difficult to obtain, but it is available outside of a clinic in Boulder" (Kliff, Newsweek, 8/15).

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